Mentor
by OneSmartBoochi
Summary: Just a quick little story about Daniel Bryan training alongside William Regal with a mention of Rowdy Roddy Piper.


Series - WWE  
Rating - TV-14  
Warnings - None.  
Disclaimer - I don't own anything and am making no profit from this.  
Summary - Daniel Bryan training with William Regal.  
Author's Note - The story about Roddy Piper and the Bear is true. YouTube, Google or read his book for a laugh.  
Word Count - 781

* * *

"Daniel, pay attention!" Came the Blackpool accent laced voice of the man in front of him, shaking him from his complacency.

"Right!" Bryan said, dropping his gear bag onto the fresh grass nearby as he prepared for another round of training with his mentor.

It had been awhile since they had last gotten together like this, the last time had been year ago in Memphis when he was just starting out. Regal had a flair for the natural things in life, lizards, turtles and other, less friendly reptiles. As such, he liked to train outdoors when the opportunity arose and it was in that spirit that Bryan and come to Regal's home in Atlanta for some one-on-one training.

The backyard space left him feeling more like they were in a Japanese garden. The acreage was lush with thick, Southern spring grass. The area was lined in the distance with pecan trees that had been planted long before either of them had been born, large and shady. The mid afternoon sky was blue, open and the air was crisp. He couldn't have gotten a better day or location to practice if he had prayed for it, he continued to think to himself as he followed the older man further into the clearing.

"Alright, you've trained with me before so you know how this works, we're gonna start off with a bit of light stretches and then work our way to the tough stuff." William said, as they both took a seat on the grassy expanse across from each other and began a series of leg and arm stretches, before moving on to a style of Indian neck stretches that Regal swore by.

They rocked on their necks for awhile, looking at each other from their upside down point of view. Daniel could see the tousled locks and knowing eyes of his teacher, presenting him a rather amusing picture. He continued to watch the other man as his eyebrows raised, really more like lowered given his current point of view, and could see the delight in his eyes. He could also see smirk the ring veteran was giving him as he began a series of vegetarian jokes that he was all too familiar with but never grew tired of, among other cheesy gems he had at his disposal.

It was decidedly pleasant to be around Regal, the man always had something nice to say, be it a kind word, a word of advice or just a funny story about the 'old timers' in the back. He remembered the story he had told him once after he went off on a ramble about bears and who had wrestled one on an episode of Slam, telling him that he had forgotten the name of one man who had also wrestled a bear, The Hot Rod, Rowdy Roddy Piper. He hadn't had a good laugh like that in a while and it felt good to just have someone to talk to. The road could be such a lonely place at times.

"Come on now, time for some work." Regal said. He was grateful for the opportunity William presented him to try out and work on some basic locks and holds, nothing too fancy of course. Practicing out in a field was quite different from practice in a proper facility and as such they could not tumble around without risking injury, they both knew, and decided to work on some little things here and there. He didn't mind in the slightest, knowing that doing the basic things really well helps your opponent look good and that when your opponent looks good, you do too.

Of course, being the competitors that they were, it didn't take long until they reached the chain wrestling portion of the practice session.

It was only a matter of time before he found himself on the wrong end of a Regal Stretch. His mentor might have been getting up in years but that only made the Brit all the more dangerous. It never worked out for him, always as if there was one more thing to learn. No matter how hard he tried, how well he countered or trained, he always got stuck in the notorious finishing move.

Experience made all of the difference, he knew, and that someday he would find a way but today was not that day and with that, he tapped out lightly against the faded 'Chris' tattoo on the other man's arm.

"Someday, I'll get out of that one." Bryan said, meaning every word he said, breathing hard as they stood against the hot orange background of the evening sunset.

"Maybe, but I wouldn't count on it, Sunshine!"


End file.
